Climate change, pesticides, the decline of the rural environment, the abandonment of traditional agricultural activities, poaching, power lines, wind towers, pollution and intensive agriculture are the main causes of bird decline in Spain. A quarter of the species found in the country are included in one of the risk categories and almost twenty are critically endangered.
The Atlas of Birds in Spaniards III, recently published by SEO/BirdLife, presents the status of 450 bird species registered in Spain. The four are one step away from disappearing: Cantabrian capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus cantabricus)marble teal (Marmaronetta angustirostris), less shrike (Lanius minor) and kitty (rissa tridactylate). Y two are already sold out: Andalusian torillo (Turnix sylvaticus) and common guillemot (Uriah Alalge).
cantabrian caper
The distribution area of this symbolic bird has shrunk by 36% in the last 20 years. And its population, 45%. Having existed in the Cantabrian mountain range from Galicia to Cantabria and Palencia in 1974, it began to occupy only small areas in northern Leon and western Asturias.
A study conducted last year by experts from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), SEO/BirdLife, and the Biodiversity Foundation concluded: only about 290 copies leftwith the aggravating situation that two-thirds are men and only one-third are women.
Another study published last year concluded that 79.5% of the caper grasses are found in Castilla y León, distributed in the districts of Alto Sil and Omaña, and the remaining 20.5% on the Asturian slope, specifically in the natural park of the Narcea Springs. Degana and Ibias. Already No signs of presence were found in the eastern parts of the Cantabrian mountain range.
marble teal
This Europe’s most endangered duck. This bird, which had a large presence in wetlands like the Doñana a few decades ago, Has narrowed its distribution area in Spain by 40% over the last two decades. The new atlas confirms its disappearance in the Region of Murcia and the Canary Islands.
The result of all this is that its existence is limited to a few Mediterranean coastal wetlands in the Community of Andalusia and Valencia. and to a single interior with very scarce and irregular reproduction Tablas de Daimiel National Park. A small breeding core is found in the Balearic Islands. Majorca island.
Since the approval of the National Strategy for its conservation in 2014, a very significant number of breeding pairs come from the Captive Breeding Program specimens published both in the Doñana region and in the Community of Valencia and the Balearic Islands.
Little Spider
after detecting Extinction of reproductive nuclei of Girona (2002) and Huesca (2010)all pairs reproduced within a radius of only 10 kilometers: currently nesting only in Lleida in the Segrià regionIn the southeast sector of the Ebro depression.
After the sharp decline in the number of couples in the early 2000s (Since 2002 the little shrike has fallen by more than 85%), the population remained between one and seven pairs. annual release of chickens hatched in captivity It started in 2009.
All individuals returning to the breeding site since 2018 were born in wild nests in the same area of adults that had previously been released by hacking or were released in previous years. As Atlas explains, no repeat bandless sample detected.
kitty seagull
This species has always had a very small range, restricted to two locations on the coast of A Coruña since its emergence as a breeder in the seventies of the last century. Actually, In 1998-2002 there were only two coloniesThat of the Sisargas Islands and Cape Vilán islets.
However, in this last area, the species disappeared as breeders between 2008-2012. Currently, its existence as a breeder is strictly limited to the Sisargas Islands colony..
“The breeding population of the Baby Gull in Spain on the verge of extinction if it hasn’t happened before” warns the latest edition of the SEO/BirdLife Atlas. because Since 2017 this breed has not been reconfirmed to breed in Spain.
common guillemot
II. In the Breeding Birds Atlas (1998-2002) two colonies of this species that existed in Galicia disappeared so much that The common murre breeding population is currently extinct in Spain.
Nesting of the species on the Galician coast has been documented since at least the end of the 19th century. still It was an abundant species in Galicia in the mid-20th century.With a total population of about 3,000 specimens distributed in at least eight colonies from A Coruña and Pontevedra.
Again, From the 1960s onwards, all Galician colonies entered a period of marked decline. which caused most of them to disappear completely within a few years. The decline was probably due to several factors, but it is suggested The introduction and popularization of nylon nets (which are very difficult for guillemots to detect in water) played a crucial role.
Andalusian Torillo
Its presence in Spain has not been registered for several years. Its distribution was limited to the lowlands of Andalusia, mainly coastal, in the states of Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Malaga and Granada. It occupied grasslands and low bushes in areas with an oceanic climate on the thermo-Mediterranean floor.
The most recent records refer to birds hunting in the El Rocío (Doñana region) area in 1981.. Since then, some undocumented observations have been made in the states of Cádiz and Huelva, so it seems likely that the species will survive at least into the 1990s.
In 2018; that is, 37 years after the last documented record, the Andalusian bullfinch was cataloged as extinct by Spanish environmental authorities. on national territory. According to SEO/BirdLife, given the current status of the taxon, it is urgent to take conservation measures in the known population (Morocco) and to search and find populations that can live in Algeria.
III Atlas of Birds in the Breeding Season in Spain: https://atlasaves.seo.org/